Michael Cameron Anderson known professionally as Anderson East, is an American R&B musician from Athens, Alabama, who currently is based in Nashville, Tennessee. His song “Satisfy Me” was released in March 2015 and received consistent radio airplay. His major-label record debut, Delilah, was released on the Low Country Sound, an imprint Elektra in July 2015. In the beginning stages of his career, East opened for Holly Williams and ended up playing guitar and singing harmonies with her. At the same time, he worked as a session musician as well as a recording engineer to provide a way to make ends meet.
East began his musical career in 2009, self-releasing an album titled Closing Credits for a Fire under the name Mike Anderson. He then began recording under the name Anderson East with the release of an EP titled Fire Demos. East’s self-released debut album, Flowers of the Broken Hearted in 2012, was made up of two records: one record which he recorded in Los Angeles with producer Chris Seefried and session players Charlie Gillingham, Don Heffington and Rob Wasserman, and a second recorded in Nashville with Tim Brennan and Daniel Scobey. The record is 15 songs long, and is made up of two CDs each with their own music genre: The White disc is made up of a progressive soul and Americana vibe, while the Red disc is darker and has more of a rock sound. He funded the record as a PledgeMusic project, with a percentage of the proceeds going to Water Aid, a nonprofit organization that brings water to communities that do not have clean drinking water.
East’s major label debut album, Delilah, was released by Low Country Sound, an imprint of Elektra in July 2015. It was produced by Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton) and features a song by George Jackson recorded at the legendary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. In 2017, East appeared on the Fifty Shades Darker Soundtrack, performing the track “What Would It Take” which he co-wrote with Aaron Raitere. This particular soundtrack debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200. East also covered Brandi Carlile’s song “Josephine” to be included for her charity album Cover Stories.
On August 15, 2017, East released the first single from his upcoming album Encore, “All On My Mind”, which he subsequently performed on October 13, 2017, in an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.